In the 8 years I have lived in Denver I can count on one hand how many times I have seen DeGette out in the community actually interacting with constituents. She strikes me as pretty uninterested in the day to day issues of the 1st Congressional District and despite having a safe (until now?) seat she's never led the charge on any truly controversial issues.

For all I know Mike Fallon is a raving right-wing lunatic and he certainly will not be receiving my vote but I can't help but think clearing out the deadwood would be healthy for the District. Let's have a competitive Democratic primary in 2012 and see what the younger set of local Democrats have to offer - like Paul Lopez or Terrance Carroll.

One seat isn't going to make a difference in the House in 2010, seems like it might be an opportune time to jettison our milquetoast Congresswoman.

DeGette votes the right way and has gained considerable clout in Congress from her seniority. The fact that she is a work horse rather than a show horse shouldn't detract from that record.

Labor was unhappy with her support for trade agreements like NAFTA, and united with Hispanic leaders to bring a primary challenge a few years ago that was defeated soundly. Fallon is more credible than some of the GOP opponents that DeGette has faced in the past and has certainly been giving his run the old college try, but given the partisan make up of the first Congressional District, he doesn't have a chance in hell of winning.

Individual Congressional seats do matter. The most important thing in the House is which party controls Congress, as opposed to individual member legislative action, and the more Democrats there are who are liberals, like DeGette, the less the House leadership has to compromise with Blue Dogs in a conservative direction.

DeGette has been a reliable vote on choice, and has personally taken the lead on consumer safety issues, which matter, even if they aren't necessarily the highest profile issues in Congress.

What matters is the party in control, not the individual, especially in the house. Even if I liked Fallon, the fact that he would contribute to giving Blue Dogs more power and to giving Republicans control would defeat any benefit that might flow from his ideosyncratic votes on a few isolated issued. And, DeGette is not bad for families and small business in any way that I have ever discerned.

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